Eyes In The Dark
by Dismal00
Summary: Sakura is traumatized by the actions of her first love. This makes things very awkward for Team 7.
1. Chapter 1

The last thing Sakura could remember was pain.

 _"You really are... damned annoying."_

Before she could really process his words, she saw swirling red and a flash of electric blue. Something impacted her in the chest. Then there was pain. Before the pain, she only felt confusion. But when she felt the sea of nerve endings light up, she realized that this was a fatal wound.

It had to be. With where she had felt it hit her and the amount of pain she was feeling, there was no other possibility. She was a medic, this was her bread and butter. If this had happened to someone else, she doubted Haruno Sakura would have been able to save them.

 _No... This can't be... How was it that I couldn't do anything...? I don't want to die yet..._ Sakura thought.

Her life flashed before her eyes. All that time spent chasing after a moody raven-haired boy and a laughing blonde-haired boy. The blonde boy smiling at her. The raven grunting in response to the blonde asking a question. Visiting Ino at the flower shop. Going on missions. Working at the hospital. That one birthday party that had gone horribly for her. Naruto arriving to save everyone from Pain. Sasuke's red eyes glowing against a white backdrop of snow. Her first day at the Academy. The first time she met Naruto. The first time she saw Sasuke. Fighting against Sasori. Learning medical ninjutsu from Tsunade. Walking up trees with her team.

The flashbacks stopped. In front of her was the real Sasuke. He had his hand in her chest. Her consciousness started fading away.

 _I wonder if you'll become Hokage, Naruto...? Heh... Sorry I wasn't much help... I wanted to see what you would do..._

She wondered if Naruto would be able to defeat Sasuke. It was out of her hands now. Was Sasuke going to kill him too? She hoped not.

 _Do you feel bad for killing me at all...? Sasuke-kun._

Then everything went black.

/

Some time later, Sakura opened her eyes. She looked around and blinked drowsily.

 _I'm alive...?_

She looked over at Kakashi. He gave her a meaningful look. She touched her chest where she had been struck earlier.

 _It was a genjutsu... It was a fucking genjutsu..._

Sakura began to laugh out of utter disbelief and shock. Kakashi looked at her like she was insane. She continued to laugh, not caring what Kakashi thought right now.

She stood up. Kakashi told her something about where Naruto and Sasuke had gone. She barely heard a word he said.

Kakashi started walking in that direction. Sakura stumbled after him like a zombie, her mind completely blank.

/

When the pair arrived in the Valley of the End, Sakura's mental state had improved somewhat. She could now hear the words that Kakashi was saying. She cared very little for what he had to say, however. All she understood about the situation was that Naruto either had fought or was fighting Sasuke. She remembered that she really wanted to be useful for Naruto. She decided to go with that for now.

"Sakura, they're over there. Look," Kakashi said, pointing down into the ravine.

Sakura looked down and saw her best friend laying next to Sasuke. Their arms were severed and blood from both of them was pooling in between them. She saw that they were both still alive. Both of them were smiling. She couldn't understand what there was to smile about. She wondered what the two had shared that made them happy. She felt happy to be alive, but that was all.

"Sakura, you should go," Kakashi suggested.

 _I should, shouldn't I? I need to heal Naruto. I guess I'll be fine if I don't look Sasuke-kun in the eyes...?_ Sakura thought.

Sakura leapt down in front of the two. They looked at her. Naruto smiled at seeing her. She knelt facing Naruto.

"You came, Sakura-chan! Thanks...?" he said.

She looked at Naruto, her eyes watering. She blinked the tears away.

 _If I just keep looking at Naruto, I won't have to look at him._

Unfortunately, Sasuke said something.

"Sakura... I..." he mumbled.

Out of sheer habit, Sakura turned her head to look at Sasuke. She immediately cursed herself and looked away from him. In the split second she met his eyes, she had a mental image of swirling red. The color of despair and loss. She decided to keep her eyes locked on Naruto's face.

"I'm sorry..." Sasuke continued.

Bitterness rose up within Sakura.

 _Is that supposed to make it all better?_

"You're sorry?! For what?" Sakura spat in reply.

"For everything up until now..."

Sakura ignored him and put both her hands to Naruto's stump. Her hands began to glow as she activated the basic healing jutsu. Naruto looked at her confusedly.

"Sakura-chan... You..." he said.

"Shut up, Naruto... I'm trying to concentrate," Sakura replied.

"No... What...? Sakura-chan... You need to-"

"I said shut up... Don't make me do it... Please..."

A tear rolled down Sakura's cheek. Naruto was looking at her desperately.

"Sakura-chan... Why? Why don't you-"

Then Sasuke spoke up.

"Dobe, be quiet. It's fine... Give Kakashi... my eye..." he coughed out.

He sounded very weak.

"Teme, no! Damn it! You're supposed to live... I worked so hard... Sakura-chan! You need to-" Naruto replied frantically.

"Shut up... Usurakon...ta..."

Sasuke passed out, clearly from the blood loss. Sakura continued to stare at Naruto's face as if her life depended on it. His face was full of fear and desperation.

"Sakura-chan...! He might die... I thought you loved him...? Please, Sakura-chan..." Naruto said.

Sakura stared at Naruto's features. She watched as he kept looking between Sasuke and her. She started to feel a pain in her chest.

"Damn it... Naruto..." Sakura muttered softly.

"What are you doing, Sakura-chan...? Please don't let him die... He's good now... If you can't do it for him, do it for me...?"

Sakura bit her lip. She noticed Naruto's eyes were starting to water. She moved one shaking hand over to Sasuke's injury which was still bleeding. She reluctantly activated the jutsu.

"Thanks, Sakura-chan... I'm going to sleep now..." Naruto whispered.

Sakura watched Naruto's eyes close. She looked over at Sasuke. They were like two friends who stayed up too late playing outside.

She began to weep.

/

After the war ended, the days were going by quickly. Sakura spent most of her time working on making a synthetic arm for Naruto. She didn't know what they planned to do about Sasuke. She knew he was in a cell, but that was it. She didn't really care as long as she wouldn't have to see him. She had asked Ino about deleting the memory of Sasuke's genjutsu. Ino said it was possible, but said it would take her several sessions to locate and extract only that memory. Sakura didn't have time for that with the work she was doing. Sometimes when she closed her eyes, she saw Sasuke's features amid a pastiche of blue and red. She was having difficulty sleeping, so she worked like a robot in hopes of making herself exhausted.

When Sakura did sleep, she often had strange nightmares. She would be going about her day, then suddenly everything would become dark. She would feel trapped. She would look around nervously. Eventually, two glowing red points of light would appear. They resembled a pair of Sharingan eyes. They would get closer as she began to fear her imminent death. Then she would wake up in a cold sweat and remember that Sasuke was still in ANBU prison. That was the only thing that stopped her from going and turning on all the lights.

Sakura knew that Naruto would lobby for his freedom. The thought turned her stomach. Her best friend would fight to free the man who had hurt her so badly. It was so cruel for Sakura to think about, but she had no confidence to bring it up to Naruto. Because Sasuke had always been so important to him.

 _Sai told me Naruto loved me... But would he actually pick me over Sasuke-kun? I'm not confident at all that he would..._ Sakura thought sadly.

Sakura had mostly been avoiding other people and focusing on this project. While she was working on constructing the arm, her mind didn't wander to unpleasant areas.

There was also the matter of whether or not she regretted listening to Naruto. After some thought, she decided that yes, she did. She would really feel better if she knew for sure that Sasuke could never do something like that again.

His death would have accomplished that.

 _Damn it..._

Sakura laid in bed wide awake. She stared at her white ceiling. It almost looked like it was more of a light red.

/

After a couple of weeks, Sakura had finished the arm. Tsunade had brought up the possibility of making an arm for Sasuke. Sakura had laughed just as she did outside the Valley of the End before telling her to find someone else. Tsunade had given her a strange look and said, "Well, he didn't want one anyway."

Sakura was now in one of the rooms of the hospital waiting for Naruto. She was going to test the functionality of the replacement arm for him. She sat in a chair and waited for him to arrive.

 _Hopefully he doesn't talk to me about that bastard,_ Sakura thought.

Naruto was late, and her mind was wandering. She hated it when this happened, because it would only go to one place. She suddenly put chakra into her fist and punched a hole in the wall.

The door slammed open. It was one of her medic colleagues. He was a man with glasses and a beard who was in his late twenties.

"Haruno-san! Are you alright?" he asked.

"Yes, Fujiwara... Just leave me alone, please," Sakura replied.

The medic nodded and left, shutting the door. Sakura continued staring at the door. She imagined Naruto painting it orange with the conspiratorial smile of a prankster on his face. She smiled sadly.

The door opened again. It was Naruto, wearing his typical black and orange outfit. His new arm was completely covered in white bandages. He grinned at her.

"Hey, Sakura-chan! How are you?" he greeted jovially.

"Fine, Naruto..." Sakura answered.

She tried to smile, but she didn't feel like it was very convincing. Naruto gave her a strange look and sat down on the bed. She began to tend to his arm.

"So, I haven't seen you much lately... I missed you, Sakura-chan... What have you been doing?"

"Just working on your arm, Naruto... Nothing else interesting..."

"Wow... Sorry, Sakura-chan... I didn't know the arm took that long to make."

"It doesn't... I just haven't had much else to do."

"Oh... Well, you could have asked me if I wanted to do something, Sakura-chan... I always like spending time with you!"

Sakura had considered doing this many times. She always came to the conclusion that Naruto would definitely talk about Sasuke, so she didn't. She didn't want to think about Sasuke, but more importantly, she didn't want to have this conversation. It was not going to be remotely pleasant for either of them.

"Sorry, Naruto... It must have slipped my mind."

"Oh, okay."

Naruto grinned at her.

"So, Sasuke should be getting out of jail soon. Isn't that great? We can be Team 7 again," he stated.

Sakura's stomach twisted up in knots. Her skin was covered in gooseflesh.

"Can we not talk about him, Naruto...?"

In reality, she desperately wanted to talk about this with Naruto. She wanted to tell him what happened so that he could make her feel better about it. But she was terrified that Naruto would pick Sasuke over her. Naruto always chased after him, leaving her in the dust. She was almost sure that when it came down to it, he'd do the same thing again.

That would hurt her worse than what Sasuke had done.

"Sakura-chan... Why don't you want to talk about him?"

Sakura didn't reply, staring into space with a haunted expression. Naruto looked at her with concern.

"Look, I understand why you didn't want to heal him... No one blames you for that. He was our enemy at the time... It's fine, Sakura-chan. You don't have to feel guilty about it," Naruto continued.

 _Feel guilty? He thinks I feel guilty?! Well, I do feel bad. But not for how long it took me to heal him! For healing him at all! For letting that bastard near me to begin with! For being so weak that I let him get me with that jutsu... For letting him do this to me... Damn it... There's no way that Naruto will understand._

Sakura stared down at the floor hopelessly.

"Naruto... I don't feel bad about not healing him."

"Oh..." Naruto scratched the back of his head with the new arm. "What's wrong, then? Please tell me, Sakura-chan."

Sakura wondered what she should say. There was no way she could get him to turn on his friend and destroy him for hurting her. Naruto just didn't work like that. He always forgave. This was the one time that she deeply resented it. She felt very alone.

Naruto looked at her curiously.

"Sakura-chan...?" he asked.

She decided that this could no longer be avoided.

"Naruto... If I tell you this, I need you to promise that you won't leave me..." Sakura said slowly.

"Of course, Sakura-chan... I'll never abandon you. You're my most precious per-"

"Is that really true?" Sakura snapped, interrupting him. "What about in the Land of Iron...? You left me standing in the snow like a fool... Then you said you wanted to die with him. That would have left me alone, Naruto!"

"But me and him are both fine, Sakura-chan... It's over now... And I'm sorry... But you weren't telling the truth, Sakura-ch-"

"So what if I wasn't telling the truth?! I didn't want to be tied to Sasuke-kun anymore! Don't you understand, Naruto?! Look what happened because of it! He-"

Sakura suddenly stopped talking. She hung her head in sadness and frustration.

 _Why didn't you just let me take you home back then, Naruto...? I liked you... Thinking about Sasuke-kun was making me suffer... Now he did something horrible to me... And you're not going to care, because you care more about him than anyone..._

Naruto was staring at her with interest.

"He what, Sakura-chan...?"

She lifted her head to look at Naruto. Her eyes were watery.

"He tortured me, Naruto..."

Naruto jumped up out of his seat. He was gaping at Sakura.

"Sakura-chan... What do you mean?"

She was looking up at him with a devastated expression.

"That genjutsu he used on me back then... I thought I was..."

Sakura paused as tears fell down her face.

"He put me in a genjutsu where he stabbed me with his Chidori... And I thought I was going to die, Naruto..." she explained.

Naruto's eyes widened.

"It felt real... I had no idea it was a genjutsu. I was so scared, Naruto. I was in horrible pain... It was the worst experience of my life... I was sure I was going to die... It felt so awful knowing I'd never see you again... I've hardly been able to sleep since then... And the worst part is, it was all my fault..."

He took a step towards her and hugged her in an attempt to comfort her. She continued to sob as she weakly returned the embrace.

"For still trying to love that evil bastard... For being so stupid as to look him in the eyes... For being so weak... I let him do it to me... I hate that I made it so easy for him to hurt me...!" She tightened her grip on Naruto to the point that it bruised him slightly. "Damn it... Why, Naruto?!"

Naruto flinched and gazed down at her with worry.

"Sakura-chan... I don't know why he would-" he started to say.

Sakura shouted over him as he was talking. She was glaring at him angrily.

"No, Naruto! Why do you care about him so much?! Why did you tell me to save him...? I didn't want to! I didn't want him to be able to do that to anyone ever again..."

"Sakura-chan... I'm sorry that happened... I didn't think he would use that kind of genjutsu... But he's better, now... He won't-"

"I don't care! I'm not risking it... Keep him away from me, Naruto...!"

Naruto looked at her with wide eyes.

"Sakura-chan... I don't really understand this. I thought you loved him..."

Sakura gave him a desperate look.

"How can I still love him...? I'm terrified of him and I hate him for what he did to me... Sure, I thought I loved him... Maybe some of that love still exists in some way... But I've been suffering over this for weeks. You have no idea how terrified and heartbroken I was when I thought I was going to die. I couldn't even look at him back then... And I never want to see him again..."

"Wow, Sakura-chan... I don't know what to say... Why did you heal him, then...?"

"Because you told me to..."

Naruto looked at her curiously. Sakura glared at him with some resentment.

"But... If you were that angry and scared... Why did you listen to me, Sakura-chan?"

"Because the thought of him dying was hurting you... I couldn't bear to watch you suffer like that..."

"But why...? Why would that affect you so much?"

Sakura thought about this. Why was that? She had thought about it before, and she already knew the answer. She just hadn't really gotten used to it, because it was new to her and she had been extremely distracted.

This was hardly a good time to say it, but he had asked. She relaxed a little and looked at him calmly.

"Because the one I really love... is you, you idiot... Congratulations... You win, Naruto..." she stated in a deadpan manner.

His eyes widened. Naruto pulled back from her and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Are you serious...?"

"As a heart attack..."

He let his arms fall to his sides. He stared at her blankly.

"Wow... I love you too, Sakura-chan. This isn't how I wanted to tell you, though..."

"I know... I'm going to go see Ino about having the memory removed. Please don't ask me to see Sasuke-kun..."

"He's really sorry about it... I'm sorry too.. I didn't know that that happened..."

"I don't care, Naruto... All I did was tell him that I loved him and that I was sorry I couldn't help him..." She balled her fists at her sides. "Why did he have to do that to me? I only ever tried to help him... It's not like I was a real threat to him... Why did he have to hurt me?!"

Not knowing what else to do, Naruto gave Sakura a tentative hug again. She didn't return the embrace.

"I don't know, Sakura-chan. It doesn't really make any sense to me. I could ask him, if you want...?"

"No, don't bother... There's no way anything he could say would make it better..."

Naruto felt horrible looking at Sakura. She wasn't meeting his eyes.

"God... I'm so sorry, Sakura-chan."

She finally put her arms around Naruto.

"It's not your fault... I guess... I wanted to save him, too... I remember what that was like... Heh, I was so stupid... I just wish you would have put me first," She held onto the fabric of Naruto's jacket tightly. "I was always chasing you while you chased after him... You never turned back to look at me... I could have been killed, and you would have just kept running after him..."

Naruto felt conflicted and guilty.

"No! Sakura-chan, I would never... He was just really important to me. But I wouldn't abandon you... I wish I could have protected you from being hurt, too..."

She finally looked up at Naruto.

"He was important to me too... But if I have to die, it's not worth it, Naruto... I want to live... Please tell me you feel the same way..."

"Of course... I'll do anything to help fix what happened to you... I'll take responsibility, Sakura-chan. I shouldn't have pushed you to go after him..."

Sakura looked at Naruto tiredly.

"No, Naruto... It wasn't you who did it, it was him. I won't let you sacrifice yourself anymore..."

"But..."

"I'll just talk to Ino... It might take a while, but then the memory will be gone, and I can finally get a full night's rest..."

Naruto gazed at her miserably.

"Sakura-chan... I feel awful... I was so naive and stupid about this. I thought I could save him without any of us getting hurt... But I let something terrible happen to you... You're my Sakura-chan... I never want to let anyone hurt you... But you were hurt so badly and I didn't even know about it... I am so dumb..."

He sighed.

"Yeah, you're an idiot, Naruto... It's fine... I know what to expect at this point..."

Sakura chuckled to herself wearily.

"That's mean, Sakura-chan..."

"I'm too stressed out and tired to be nice, Naruto... Can you leave now? We're over time... I have to go back to work," Sakura said evenly.

Naruto let go of Sakura and stepped back away from her.

"Sure, Sakura-chan..." He walked over to the door. "I'm sorry again... I really love you... And I always have... I wish that could help..."

She smiled weakly at Naruto.

"Maybe it does... Bye, Naruto..."

Naruto smiled apologetically back and opened the door.

"Bye, Sakura-chan..."

He stepped out. Sakura let out a huge breath she had been holding in. She felt incredibly tired, so she collapsed in the nearest chair. Putting her head to the cushion, she felt herself falling asleep.

 _It's dark... Please, not again... Stop..._ _No...!_

 _Oh... They're blue..._

In her sleep, she smiled in relief.


	2. Chapter 2

When Naruto had spoken to Sakura yesterday and learned about her suffering from memories of a genjutsu that he had assumed was fairly harmless, he really didn't know what to think about it. The thought of her suffering angered him, but he had only just reconciled with Sasuke. He didn't want to make an impulsive decision that could become a disaster. Plus, he barely knew anything about genjutsu. He never used it himself and Kurama protected him from all of it. It was a branch of the ninja arts he wasn't at all interested in.

He had already spent a lot of time talking with Sasuke, and he had heard absolutely nothing about him torturing Sakura. He only ever talked about Sakura in the context of their adventures over 3 years ago. He didn't seem to be at all angry or annoyed with her. He even laughed talking about the crazy things she used to do to ingratiate herself with him. It made Naruto smile and made him think that the trio could all be friends again. Then he talked to a devastated Sakura and that suddenly didn't seem very likely anymore.

From Naruto's perspective, Sasuke was legitimately trying to atone for his actions. So if he had seriously wronged Sakura in this way, he would have mentioned it at some point. It also didn't really make sense that Sasuke would want to make her suffer this much. Even when he was still in darkness, he just didn't really care about her. His lack of regard for her was cruel, but it was also a reason why he wouldn't go out of his way to hurt her more than he needed to. So this situation made no sense at all to Naruto. He needed to hear Sasuke's side of the story.

Naruto decided to go to the prison and talk to Sasuke. When he arrived, he checked in with the ANBU guards. One of them escorted him to where his friend was being held behind steel bars. Sasuke raised his head to look at him. He was clad in white pajamas and had several chakra seals applied. He was handcuffed, but they were connected around the front. The guard walked off to give them a modicum of privacy.

"Hey, Dobe. What are you doing back here so soon? I didn't expect you to visit for another few days," greeted Sasuke.

"I heard something troubling. I need to ask you about it," Naruto replied.

"Hn."

"Do you remember before we fought, when you used that genjutsu to put Sakura-chan to sleep?"

"Of course... I wouldn't have done that, but there was no way that she wasn't going to follow us. Plus she would have yelled at me the entire time... What's the problem?"

"Why didn't you use like, a pleasant illusion to put her to sleep?"

The raven shrugged.

"I don't know any. Rather, I haven't configured my Sharingan to use any. I don't know if you know this, but I very rarely use genjutsu, much like you. That jutsu was one of maybe two genjutsu that I would ever consider using in a combat situation, and the other one would only be practical in very specific situations."

"So you're saying, you had no choice but to hurt her?"

The Uchiha raised an eyebrow.

"Unless you were willing to knock her out yourself," He looked at Naruto meaningfully. "Which you obviously weren't... Yes, I had no choice. If I had tried to use physical force to disable her, our fight would have begun on the spot since you'd have tried to protect her. And I may not have even succeeded. It would actually have been more dangerous for her if I had done that, since she could have been caught up in our battle. I still don't understand what the problem is. It was a simple jutsu..."

All of this made sense so far to Naruto, but there was a large disconnect between Sasuke's description of the jutsu and Sakura's. Naruto decided to stop acting casual. He looked at Sasuke seriously and recounted what Sakura had told him about the mental damage she suffered. After he finished explaining, Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. That jutsu is nothing compared to the jutsu Itachi used on me when I was ten years old... I understand she might not be that strong mentally. But this is simply ridiculous. It doesn't matter how weak-minded she could possibly be... I could cast that jutsu on you every day for a year and you would not have any lasting issues. It simply makes it appear that I've moved inhumanly fast and struck them, usually in center mass, depending on where they're standing. The medium of the Sharingan transmits chakra via eye contact to achieve this goal. It wouldn't mirror the effects of death in any way... She might assume that at first, but the unnatural nature of it would become evident soon enough. It has a very limited scope. It's not realistic at all. Genjutsu that can directly tamper with a person's emotions, or the physical processes of the body, are extremely rare or entirely nonexistent. All it would do is cause pain and possibly fear considering the imagery of being attacked... It's a completely absurd suggestion, Dobe."

Naruto pondered this for a while with his head down. To him, it really didn't seem likely at all that Sakura was lying.

 _She loved the Teme before this happened. Now she acts like she hates him and resents the fact that I even let him live. Does it even make sense that her change of heart could be manufactured?_ Naruto wondered.

He raised his head to look at Sasuke again.

 _No, it really doesn't._

"Teme... She didn't sound like she was lying... At all. She's lied to me before, it was completely different."

Sasuke glared at him impatiently.

"Dobe, this isn't up for debate. There is no way that the jutsu could mirror the effects of death. Even my brother's jutsu, Tsukuyomi, could never do that. Tsukuyomi is only devastating due to the extreme amount of time that you spend inside the jutsu landscape. This is something that is psychologically damaging. Other genjutsu could cause psychological damage in other ways. For instance, presenting illogical or disturbing imagery and involving the target in it... Yuhi Kurenai would be much better to ask about this than me. But I digress..."

He sighed before continuing.

"There's no way my jutsu, or really almost any genjutsu, could affect someone in the way she said it happened... The jutsu can't deal psychological damage. It causes unconsciousness through tricking the nervous system into sending pain signals... This is possible because the way chakra interacts with the nervous system is well understood. The way chakra interacts with higher brain functions is not at all understood. The pain isn't even usually appropriate for the visual component... One of my team members told me that it reminded him of having a headache. A lot of the time, it doesn't even work... I thought it would probably work on Sakura because she isn't a combat ninja, so her pain tolerance would not be high... If it didn't work, it would at least have stunned her for a time so that I could have knocked her out using another method without having to worry about her avoiding it."

The Uchiha raised an eyebrow.

"Didn't you say Sakura was one of the best medical ninjas here?" he asked.

"Yeah, she is..."

"Then she would never think she was dying. Not with her knowledge. Never. She would realize that she was feeling pain and nothing else. No other aspect of her body failing in any way. The lack of coughing up blood, for instance... There is simply no way a medic of any capacity is tricked by that jutsu for more than a second. They might be knocked unconscious by it, but they'd realize it was genjutsu... Sakura would have noticed so many things wrong with the scenario. She's a liar... No other possibility makes any sense at all. I don't know what her motivation could be, but there's no other alternative."

Naruto looked at him grimly.

"Teme, you don't get it, though. She loved you... She really wanted to save you."

"Hn. So what?"

"Well, now she hates you. She's afraid of you and wishes I had killed you. That was why she didn't heal you... It wasn't because of anything else you did... Not that she was okay with everything else... She was just incredibly bitter and upset about the jutsu..."

"Again, the jutsu cannot possibly do what she's saying it did. I can't explain her actions. I just know how the jutsu works. Even a young child would not be traumatized for any meaningful length of time by that jutsu. It's an obvious lie, Dobe."

Both young ninjas were getting tired of the back-and-forth nature of this debate. They started glaring at each other as was common for the two of them.

"But would she really put so much towards an obvious lie, Teme? She avoided me for a long time because she was so uncomfortable about telling me what happened because she knew I wanted to forgive you. What could her motivation possibly be?"

Sasuke's gaze became claustrophobic.

"To manipulate you, perhaps?"

Naruto stared back with the same intensity.

"Manipulate me to do what? It doesn't make any sense, Sasuke."

"What she is saying makes even less sense. Use the simplest explanation. Here, I'll help you. Is the problem that you think I am the one lying about the jutsu?"

"I guess that's possible..."

"Hn. Go to the building I used to live in when we were Genin. Check the bookcase behind the stairs. There should be a large book that is undecorated aside from an Uchiha symbol on the front cover. It's about this big..." Sasuke indicated a space about a foot tall and half as wide. "And it's a light grey color, I believe. Don't try to open it, it has a blood seal on it. Bring it back here and I'll confirm what I'm talking about."

Naruto relaxed quite a bit.

"OK, Teme... I really want to believe you. I don't want to believe that you hurt Sakura-chan so much... It would feel so awful for me to find out I defended you after you had done that to her... She's so important to me..."

Sasuke gave him a rare sympathetic look.

"I know, Dobe. I tried to get her to like you instead, it just didn't work out back then. I thought she was interested after you defeated Gaara, but I never really understood what she was thinking. Anyway, go get that book and come back."

Naruto frowned at him and ran off. He told the guard he'd return in less than a half hour. He then exited the prison and headed towards the Uchiha district.

/

Sakura was sitting in an easy chair in the living room of Ino's parents' house. Ino was standing behind her with her hands on both sides of the pinkette's head. This was the first time Ino was looking into her mind in relation to this subject. Sakura felt a lot of trepidation about letting Ino see her feelings and memories.

"Forehead... This is so weird," Ino commented.

"What is?" Sakura asked, trying to stay still.

"Here, let me show you."

Ino attempted to bring Sakura into her own mindscape. It was a difficult task because Sakura had never done it before. Sakura found herself in a pink landscape, standing next to her childhood friend. Ino smiled gently at her. She motioned towards a glowing door.

"See, this is the gateway to your recent memories... Like those of the past few weeks or so. It shouldn't be glowing... Brightness is representative of meaning, or significance for a person... But this isn't a memory... This is just a gateway. We would have to go through it to actually see your memories from that time," Ino explained.

"Should we go through it now?" asked Sakura.

"Sure... Come with me."

Ino opened the door. They walked through the glowing doorway.

The room inside was an absolute mess. The walls were painted every shade of every color in existence. Twisted furniture, garbage, and debris laid everywhere. Sakura realized that this was actually her room at her home. But nothing except the shape of it was the same. Ino's eyes were like dinner plates.

"So, what does this mean, Ino-pig...? Why is it such a mess?"

"Uh... The organization of the memory room signifies how orderly the mental state of the subject is. An organized room would mean a person with a disciplined and focused mind... Which should be a person like you, Forehead... I don't understand this. I'm sure that's what it means. I study this stuff all the time. It's part of my job..."

Sakura's eyes widened.

"My mind is in chaos...?"

"It looks that way... Here, let's pull up a memory. Think about something significant that happened recently."

All that really occurred to Sakura was the conversation that she had with Naruto. Though she had misgivings about showing something so personal to Ino, there really was nothing else significant other than the tragedy that had started all this, which might not be recent enough. The rest of her life had been completely uneventful as she focused on work to try to distract herself. She started to reminisce about the talk she had with Naruto in the hospital room.

On top of a huge pile of broken kunais in the corner appeared a bowl of ramen which was steaming. The two girls walked over to look at it. The broth was glowing a furious red color and the noodles were bright pink. It looked extremely strange.

"I thought about talking to Naruto yesterday... I guess that's why it's ramen...?"

The two friends leaned over the top of the bowl, staring down into it. It didn't look the least bit appetizing.

"Yeah... It will create an object that you associate the person with. Red signifies a state of intense anger, violence, or bitterness... I've never seen one quite that color. I hope you didn't hurt Naruto..."

Ino gave Sakura a joking smile.

"I didn't... But I wasn't that nice to him, either... What about the pink?"

"Pink is romance, love, or a state of sentimentality or attachment for another person... I guess that makes sense since it involved Naruto... You've always had something going on with him," Ino said playfully.

Sakura glared at Ino.

"Shut up... How do we view the memory?"

"I'll do that part... It's a little complicated."

Ino did a few strange handsigns that weren't used in normal jutsus. A ghostly version of Naruto and Sakura facing each other appeared in the center of the room.

Ino and Sakura were observing the memorable parts of the conversation from yesterday. Sakura blushed at how embarrassing it was to watch yourself get so distraught over something. The blush stayed on her face during the part where they talked about their feelings awkwardly.

"You could have been a bit more romantic, Forehead..." Sakura's eye twitched in response. "Anyway... This memory isn't actually as intense as the colors would indicate. Don't get me wrong, there were some parts where either you or Naruto were clearly quite emotional... But the color would indicate something on the level of crying your heart out for the whole memory... While also feeling a deep sense of romantic love throughout. Your confession to him wasn't very heartfelt... I mean, I'm sure you meant it... But the fact is, these colors are wrong. They're indicating a level of emotional attachment that isn't there," Ino explained.

"What if I'm feeling that way below the surface...?"

Ino looked at her quizzically.

"Were you?"

"I don't know... My mind has been all mixed up. I don't really know what I'm feeling most of the time... I knew I loved Naruto because of how I felt when I saw him in pain... That along with our memories together... Other than that, I have no clue what I'm feeling other than upset, angry, and scared of Sasuke-kun..."

"I'm not sure, Forehead... I'd have to ask my father about this. I'm not even sure he's seen anything like this happen before. Anyway, I'll go back to looking for the memory from the end of the war... You can leave your mindscape whenever you want, just think about the room we're in in the real world..."

Sakura did so. She found herself sitting in Ino's living room with the blonde's hands cradling her head. She took a deep breath and tried to relax as Ino searched through her mind.

/

Naruto had retrieved the book. He was heading back into the prison to show it to Sasuke. The guard nodded to Naruto as he walked towards the Uchiha's cell.

"You got the book, Dobe?" Sasuke asked. Naruto waved the book he was holding. "Good. Let me see."

Naruto passed the large book through the bars. It barely fit. Sasuke held the book in his two hands cuffed together. The raven-haired man bit his thumb and swiped it across the Uchiha logo. The bloodstain disappeared and he opened the book.

Sasuke flipped through the book. He checked the table of contents first. He had a specific chapter in mind. His dark eyes brightened in interest when he looked at the next page.

"This book is called "Sharingan: A Cursed Bloodline." It was written by an Uchiha historian sometime around when your dad was Hokage... It mostly talks about how the Sharingan grew more ubiquitous among the Uchiha over time, the beliefs and superstitions about it, and the attempts from within and outside the Leaf to steal it... It's really interesting. More importantly, there are a few chapters detailing the Sharingan's capabilities... And this is the only source of an actual description of how Sharingan genjutsu works... On paper, anyway. It's a little different from ordinary genjutsu in that it's a bit more limited, but it can be applied very quickly and without hand signs, using eye contact alone. It's the ideal method of using genjutsu for someone who doesn't want to spend a lot of time training in it," Sasuke explained.

"I see," mumbled Naruto, not very interested in this information.

Sasuke had located the correct page. He traced the lines with his finger.

"Here it is. I'll read it to you."

"Genjutsu delivered through the means of a normal Sharingan Eye has no more capabilities than your average genjutsu other than the medium of transference via eye contact. The genjutsu that can be applied consists of deceiving the senses and tricking the brain of the target to send the wrong signals in a very basic way. Only primal feelings like pain and pleasure can be directly stimulated by genjutsu, with very rare exceptions. There is no known way to directly affect the complex emotions of a target. The Sharingan Eye mainly acts via a jutsu which the Uchiha refer to as "Genjutsu: Sharingan." This is not a proper jutsu as there is no incantation nor are there any hand signs. The user activates a Sharingan with at least two tomoes and makes eye contact before..." Sasuke read aloud.

Naruto held up his hand. Sasuke stopped reading and looked at Naruto meaningfully.

"The important part there was a few sentences back, right?"

"There's another part talking about how the genjutsu of the Sharingan works, but yes. That is how I know that Sakura is lying to you. How could she have suffered that much if all I did was cause her some physical pain with a jutsu which would have been gone when she woke up? I'm not making any excuses for what I did, but you need to understand that it's simply not possible, Dobe."

 _So Sakura-chan had to have lied...? That doesn't make any sense,_ Naruto thought.

He needed to see it for himself. There had to be some other explanation.

"Can I read it myself? I just want to make sure," Naruto asked, holding out his hand.

Sasuke nodded and passed the book back through the bars.

"It starts on page 221."

Naruto grabbed the book and started to flip to that page. He found the passage that Sasuke had just read aloud and he decided to do the same. This issue was incredibly important to him and he refused to overlook anything.

"Genjutsu delivered through the means of a normal Sharingan Eye has no more capabilities than your average genjutsu other than the medium of transference via eye contact. The genjutsu that can be applied consists of deceiving the senses and tricking the brain of the target to send the wrong signals in a very basic way... Only primal feelings like pain and pleasure can be directly stimulated by genjutsu, with very rare exceptions... There is no known way to directly affect the complex emotions of a target... Seventeen... The Sharingan Eye mainly... Wait, what? Why does it say 17 there?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"That's a citation, idiot. If you flip to the back of the book, there's going to be an appendix where he credits different people for the knowledge he used to write the book."

Naruto did what the raven suggested. He had never heard of citations before and he was somewhat interested in learning about them. He saw a list of entries; each of them were about one paragraph in length. The first one started off like so: "This jutsu was named by Uchiha Kagetaka when he used it on the battlefield for the first time. He later found a wide variety of applications for its use..."

Naruto flipped through a couple of pages of the appendix until he was in the late teens. He scanned for the seventeenth entry. When his eyes found it, he read it silently like he had the first citation. Sasuke's gaze had shifted away from Naruto, bored of his slow reading speed and his meaningless interest in the citations.

 _17._

 _My colleague, Uchiha Hideki, disputes this point. He spent a great deal of time studying the brain of a Sharingan user using medical chakra. An interesting fact he discovered was that the neurons related to emotional regulation - the neurons used to activate a Sharingan - are not unique to Uchiha, but exist in all humans. But an even more amazing discovery of his is that the chakra that the human body supplies to these neurons devoted to emotional regulation is extremely similar - if not identical - to the chakra of the Sharingan. A fascinating hypothesis was devised by Hideki at this point. He asserts - with some degree of confidence - that if a subject was in a state of great emotional distress akin to an Uchiha activating the Sharingan for the first time, and then the subject's neurons received chakra from an external Sharingan - likely a genjutsu being cast by an enemy or whoever is trying to confirm the hypothesis - the neurons would misinterpret the injection of chakra from a foreign Sharingan as a release of their existing neurotransmitters (NTs). This is very similar to how the Sharingan when first activated leaves the user in dire straits emotionally due to the sudden dumping of all NTs related to emotional regulation._

 _This is the origin of the Sharingan being dubbed "The eye that reflects the heart."_

 _But a different result is hypothesized by Hideki. The neurons of the subject would not dump their NTs. They would instead falsely consider themselves empty and start producing more NTs despite the large quantity already present, while the chakra from the foreign Sharingan would simply renew the process with every pulse of chakra sent to apply the genjutsu. This would cause an overload of NTs in the neurons in question within a matter of seconds. This would have the result of inducing a state of extreme sensitivity to strong emotions in the subject. This would be detrimental to the subject's state of mind and their ability to remain rational. This resulting scenario of being governed by powerful feelings could cause loss of free will in the subject, limiting their agency or even pushing them into the role of a viewer stuck inside their own body. Any stimulus provided to the subject would be experienced only in the way that is the most powerful and visceral to them. Due to the subject's emotional state and the way it would cause them to process stimuli, they would engage with any strongly positive or negative experience to such a degree that they would keep it 'fresh' in their mind for a very long time afterwards._

 _This result is something Hideki predicted based on existing studies. Unfortunately, no civilians showed interest in assisting Hideki with his hypothesis. In addition, it's unlikely that you could ever manufacture sufficient emotional response in a laboratory environment without unethical practices which the Uchiha do not condone._

So with a heavy heart - as our clan's bloodline reflects - I must sadly assume that this hypothesis will always remain a mere hypothesis.

Naruto stared at the page blankly after he finished reading it, slowly absorbing the contents. He didn't know what a lot of the words meant, but he understood the ideas being presented. After several seconds, his eyes turned red. The Kyuubi screamed to spill the blood of the last Uchiha.

He lifted his head to stare at Sasuke bitterly. Sasuke watched with wide eyes.

"What's up, Dobe...?" he asked.

"Teme... I should kill you..." Naruto said in a low growl. He dropped the book.

"Huh...? What do you mean? I know the Uchiha clan did terrible things, but Itachi dealt with them. There's no need to be concerned with it anymo-"

Sasuke was interrupted as a giant Rasengan shredded the bars to the cell. A Naruto clad in red chakra immediately grabbed hold of his former teammate's neck with one hand. He slammed him against the stone wall.

"You fucking bastard... HOW COULD YOU?! She loved you! She would have done anything for you! All she wanted was for you to care about her and see her as someone important! But you didn't care. You made her so sad and miserable when all she wanted was to help you! She's been suffering for a long time now because of your cruel, senseless action on that day... I don't care what you intended anymore! You hurt Sakura-chan... You did permanent damage to Sakura-chan...! I WON'T FORGIVE YOU!"

The blonde was trembling as he spoke, holding Sasuke by the neck. His lack of self-control had the effect of cutting off Sasuke's airflow intermittently. The Uchiha was frantically trying to claw Naruto's hand off of himself, but he had been weakened by the seals placed on him when he was incarcerated. He was shocked and entirely helpless to stop this from happening. The raven was barely getting enough air to stay conscious. He gasped and sputtered.

"You piece of shit Uchiha... I can't believe I protected you from getting killed by the other villages... I protected you while Sakura-chan was crying! While Sakura-chan couldn't sleep because she was scared and hurt! Because you put her through so much fear and pain for no good god damn reason... And I wasn't there to comfort her! She was miserable and alone because I was wasting my time with YOU, you fucking traitor... And then you called her a liar?! I stood here and listened to you call her that after you made her SUFFER?!" screamed the apoplectic Naruto.

Naruto shifted his grip to grab the raven by the collar of his shirt. He began to smash Sasuke against the wall repeatedly, still using one hand.

"After you made her believe that you had ripped her life away from her? Her beautiful life, full of people who love her?!" continued Naruto. He spoke only when he wasn't occupied with trying to hurt his old friend as much as possible.

He let Sasuke fall to the ground after slamming him against the wall one more time.

"And I'm one of them..."

Naruto took a deep, frustrated breath.

"You were able to hurt her BECAUSE she loved you... Because she cared so much about you... That's the worst part... That's the part that pisses me off the most!"

The blonde pressed his foot against Sasuke's chest and stared down at him. The Uchiha's eyelids were fluttering, but he didn't seem to be moving.

"You took her love and treated it like GARBAGE! You treated HER like garbage! Why didn't you find a way to disable her that wouldn't hurt her?! Because you didn't care...? HOW DARE YOU? I should fucking KILL you! I know you don't love her, but I do... So I'll NEVER let you get away with this!"

Naruto picked up Sasuke and threw him against the opposite wall, watching in satisfaction as the Uchiha's beaten and presumably unconscious form crumpled up against it and landed awkwardly. He picked up the stupid book of Uchiha bullshit and flipped through it, finding the offending page and ripping it out. He placed it on top of Sasuke's bloody face.

"Maybe now you can understand how Sakura-chan felt... Being totally at the mercy of someone who you stand no chance against. Who can kill you so easily. Who doesn't care about your life at all. Or how much they're making you suffer and cry. Or how scared and helpless you feel... You stupid asshole..." Naruto spat. He kicked the downed Uchiha in the ribs in hopes of getting rid of some of the bitterness he was feeling. "I thought you were my friend... So what if you didn't love her...? You knew that I did... I don't think I can ever trust you again. I don't care that you're supposed to be good now, because Sakura-chan might never be the same after this. If that happens, I'll really kill you..."

A lot of the fury had left him, but he was still as indignant as ever. It didn't matter if Sasuke could hear him or not; these were things he felt he needed to say. His voice became much calmer as the ribbons of red chakra shrank back inside his body.

"I don't care if I never become Hokage as a result... Anyone who would let someone get away with torturing the woman they love doesn't deserve to be Hokage."

He turned away from Sasuke and walked towards the barred window. He could hear the shouts of frantic ANBU prison guards approaching.

Naruto smashed the window open with another Rasengan and jumped through it, leaving Sasuke behind. Several guards surrounded his battered form as Naruto disappeared into the streets of Konoha.


	3. Chapter 3

"So what can you remember occurring after Sasuke called you annoying at the end of the war, Sakura-san?"

"He did something bad to me... The color red... That's all that comes to mind."

It was the next day. Sakura was sitting in the living room of the Yamanaka family home. As talented as Ino was, Sakura thought that Yamanaka Inoichi was a true genius. It had taken him about an hour to isolate and remove the memory. After he had done that, he invited her to look inside her mindscape again. Her memory room actually resembled her bedroom now, though it was still a lot messier than it was in reality. He had mentioned that she should come have more sessions with him to remove all the uncomfortable memories of her suffering after the fact, but this was already a huge relief for her. She stood up from the chair she was sitting in and smiled warmly at the older man.

"Thank you so much... I-" Sakura began to say.

Suddenly, Ino rushed into the room via the front door. Sakura and Ino's father turned to look at her in surprise.

"Forehead! Something has happened... Have you finished treating her for today, Daddy?" Ino asked.

"Yes... Sakura-san, come by later and we'll arrange to have the other memories looked at," Inoichi replied.

"Okay..." Sakura said as Ino had taken hold of her arm and gently dragged her outside.

When they were outside the Yamanaka home, Ino looked at Sakura with a serious expression.

"Ino-pig... What's going on?" Sakura asked.

"You won't believe this... Sasuke-kun is in the hospital," Ino replied.

The pinkette's eyes widened.

"What?! What happened to him?"

"They say it was Naruto... He visited Sasuke-kun in prison and he got really angry... He beat the hell out of him, Forehead. He nearly killed him..."

Sakura put a hand to her heart, which was racing. She felt a surge of happiness to hear this which immediately made her feel ashamed.

 _Naruto chose me... But damn it... He could get in so much trouble for this. I need to find him..._ she thought.

"Oh my god... Ino-pig... I've got to find Naruto. Do you know where he is?"

"I don't, but... I heard they were looking for him right now... Do you think he did it because of what happened to you...?"

Ino gave her a sympathetic look. Sakura's nerves were on edge.

"Crap! I have to go find him before something else happens..."

She looked at Ino meaningfully before running off. Ino watched her with concern etched on her features as she left.

/

The first place Sakura decided to check was the Hokage office. If Naruto was getting yelled at, she wanted to make sure he wouldn't take the fall for her like he always did. She rushed over there.

When she arrived, she saw Shizune sitting behind the assistant's desk. She could hear muffled shouting from inside. Shizune looked at her awkwardly.

"What the hell, brat...?! You're the only reason we even gave that damn Uchiha a chance to begin with... Now you beat the crap out of him and tear apart the prison?! Do you even care about becoming Hokage?!" shouted a livid Tsunade.

"You expect me to forgive that bastard for what he did?!" Naruto replied in frustration.

"What?! I thought you DID forgive him... What the hell is going on with you, Naruto?!"

"I can't answer that."

"You have to tell me something, or I'll have to assume you've completely lost it... This makes no sense! He's YOUR friend! You were the one who-"

Sakura decided not to listen to any more of this. She gave Shizune a desperate look and rushed past her to enter the office. Shizune made a move to stop her, but by the time she had stood up, Sakura had already opened the doors.

Inside was a defiant-looking Naruto and Tsunade, who was sitting behind the desk. Kakashi had yet to be inaugurated as Rokudaime, so the female Sannin was still carrying out her duties. Both of them turned to look at Sakura.

"Sakura-chan..." Naruto mumbled softly.

Tsunade opened her mouth to say something, but Sakura spoke up first.

"Shishou, please don't be hard on Naruto..." she pleaded.

"Why not? What do you have to do with this...?" Tsunade replied.

Sakura glanced over at Naruto uncomfortably. He had a determined look on his face. Naruto would suffer through anything for her. It made Sakura feel so unworthy. She wasn't going to let him do that this time.

Tsunade looked at Sakura impatiently until she finally spoke up.

"He did it because of me... Sasuke-kun did something awful to me... I told Naruto about it... Please don't put all the blame on Naruto."

Tsunade looked at her disbelievingly.

"If he did something to you, why didn't you report it? Why the hell have we been trying to rehabilitate this guy if everyone who wanted to hates him now? I don't understand any of this..."

"I was ashamed that I was so weak... I didn't want Naruto to hate his best friend... I don't know..."

Naruto then spoke.

"That asshole hurt you, Sakura-chan... I'll never stand for anyone doing that. Never. Even if it's him," he said seriously.

Sakura looked over at Naruto desperately.

"Damn it, Naruto...! It'll hurt me even more if you get in trouble because of me! I never want to be the reason why you can't achieve your dreams..." she implored.

"I don't care! If that bastard hurts you again, he's dead. I don't care if it means I'll be a Genin doing D-rank missions forever. You're more important to me than becoming Hoka-"

"ENOUGH!" Tsunade roared. "Both of you get out of here. I'll figure out what to do about you and Sasuke later, Naruto. It'll probably be my last action as Hokage. Just get out. I'm getting a headache."

"But Baa-chan..." Naruto started to say until Sakura began to drag him out by the collar of his jacket. "Ow! Sakura-chan!"

"Thanks, Shishou... I'm sorry about this," the pinkette said apologetically.

/

Two months had passed. Naruto had been doing D-rank missions the whole time as punishment. He had finished the last one today, so him and Sakura had spent the rest of the day together. The two of them had gotten really close. Sakura couldn't understand why they hadn't always been like this. Being with Naruto made her so happy that she didn't even think about what had happened with Sasuke at the end of the war. Inoichi had deleted her memories of the nightmares and her other instances of suffering over the genjutsu. All she could remember now was that back then, Sasuke had used his Sharingan to hurt her somehow. She knew that it had been a big deal for her, but couldn't remember any of the details.

Sakura walked out of the ramen stand, arm in arm with Naruto. She turned to look at him with a smile, and he smiled back. She kissed him shyly.

"I had a great time, Naruto... Can we do the same thing tomorrow?" she asked a blushing Naruto.

He grinned widely at her.

"Sure, Sakura-chan! I love spending time with you," he said in reply.

"Great! Listen, I have to go help Ino with something... I'll see you later."

Sakura grinned back at him.

"Okay! Bye, Sakura-chan!"

Naruto waved and ran off energetically. Sakura sighed and started walking over to Ino's house.

When she had gotten halfway there, a smooth voice called out to her from her right side.

"Sakura," it spoke.

She turned her head to see who it was. It was Sasuke, dressed in a black cloak. He had a sorrowful look on his face.

"Oh... it's you," Sakura said. Her tone was slightly venomous.

"Listen... I'm leaving today. I wanted to apologize for my actions," Sasuke said.

The pinkette regarded him with amusement.

"I thought you already did?"

"Yes, well... I wanted to apologize for how I hurt you at the end specifically... It's my understanding that you had the memory removed. I'm very sorry that what I did had such an effect on you... It wasn't my intention."

Sakura thought about it. There really was no need to continue being bitter towards him. She couldn't remember it, and she was happy now.

"Sure, Sasuke-kun... It's alright. I don't really think about it anymore."

Sasuke's eyes widened. He hadn't expected this kind of response.

"So... You forgive me?"

"I suppose so... Just remember that your eyes give you power over others. If you decide to use them to hurt someone... Think about it first. They might never recover. That's all I have to say."

Sasuke looked at her sadly.

"Thank you... It's not something that I will be allowed to forget. A seal has been placed on me that will inform Konoha if I use my dojutsu... If it's determined that I used it for a dark purpose, the seal can be used to disable my ocular abilities."

"Yes, I was informed of that... It gave me some measure of relief," Sakura looked at him seriously. "Listen, if you really want to make it up to me, fix things between you and Naruto. I never wanted to be the reason that the two of you stopped being friends..."

"Hn. I'll do my best."

"Sasuke-kun, I have to go. Maybe I'll see you when you return."

Sakura gave him a meaningful look and turned to walk away.

"Very well... See you later, Sakura."

The raven watched her depart.

/

When Sakura arrived at the Yamanaka residence, Ino wasn't home yet. Ino's mother had told her to make herself at home, so she sat down in a comfortable chair and closed her eyes.

After a few moments, her mind started to wander. She had a mental image of a grinning Naruto. She was sure that if she listened hard enough, she would hear the inevitable "Sakura-chan!" echo inside her head.

The mental Naruto gazed at her, his blue eyes shining with love for her. She smiled to herself. Then the blonde turned his head, looking off to her left. He nodded to someone she couldn't see. A moment later, Sasuke walked into her view. He nodded at her, then turned to Naruto and smirked. Naruto grinned back at him.

Sakura felt herself falling asleep. She dreamt of only pleasant things.


End file.
